Springboks great reveals the Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu attribute which gives him an edge on fly-half rivals
Springboks fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and ex-Boks playmaker Naas Botha (inset).
Legendary Springboks fly-half Naas Botha believes the fact that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is “extremely quick” is helping him to be the world champions’ first choice number 10.
After making his international debut for South Africa against Wales at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham last year, the 23-year-old’s career has followed an upward trajectory, and he has already made 20 Test appearances for the world champions.
Apart from Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Erasmus also has Handré Pollard and Manie Libbok as options at fly-half and the three playmakers each started two matches during the Boks’ 2024 Rugby Championship campaign.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed last year’s Autumn Nations Series due to injury but returned to Test action during the Boks’ 2025 mid-year Tests and once again shared fly-half duties with Pollard and Libbok in matches against Italy and Georgia.
It was a similar story during the early part of this year’s Rugby Championship, but the Stormers star was South Africa’s preferred number 10 by the latter stages of the prestigious southern hemisphere tournament.
Started four out of five of Boks’ recent Tests
And during the Boks recent victorious Autumn Nations Series campaign, he started at fly-half in four out of five of their Tests – against Japan, France, Ireland and Wales – with Pollard starting in the win over Italy while Libbok played off the replacements bench in each of the aforementioned encounters.
Botha, who made 28 Test appearances for South Africa between 1980 and 1992, recently appeared on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin and revealed that although he feels Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus doesn’t have a fly-half pecking order between his three playmakers, Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s superb speed gives him an edge over Pollard and Libbok.
“I don’t think Rassie’s got a favourite. I think what happened is Sacha, the way he’s playing at the moment and been playing, he sort of made himself the number one choice. That’s as simple as that,” said the 67-year-old.
“And the thing that puts him apart from the other two is he’s extremely quick. And that’s what you need, because the thing is, you give him half a gap and he’s gone.”
Botha believes each of the three fly-half options bring their own strengths to the Boks’ approach.
“Handre is a different kind of player,” he added. “He’s more the direct guy, if I can put it that way. If you want to play, I want to say, direct rugby, then Handre is your guy.
“If you know that the opposition is going to really keep you at bay and it’s going to be a little bit like the old England, play for penalties and kick penalties the whole day, then Handre will be the guy.
“Why? Because he’s proved that you give him a penalty wherever, any World Cup final, Dan Carter, Johnny Wilkinson (type), you can name them. He just never misses.
‘If it’s tight, you can keep Sacha on for 80 minutes’
“OK, Manie is slightly a different kind of guy. I think at the moment it works extremely well if, you can sum it up, I say, after 40, 50 minutes, see if the game is getting tighter or looser. If it’s tight, you can keep Sacha on for 80 minutes.
“I still believe, I’m one of the old believers, that if you select me to play, then I should be able to play first 80 minutes. I think Manie, off the bench, he’s an extremely good guy.
“Handre also, he can play first-five (eighth), he can play second-five (eighth), as you guys call it, we call it inside centre, but he can play both.”
Botha also revealed that the make-up of the Springboks’ centre combination also determines who Erasmus selects to start at fly-half.
“Manie can also get his backline going, especially what I think with the difference we’ve seen this year is if we do the right selection in the midfield,” he said.
“And there’s two kinds of midfields we have.
“We have a very direct midfield, and then we’ve got the ball players. And that’s where Rassie is playing an extremely important part by looking at the opposition and saying, ‘Okay, we need this midfield or we need that midfield’.
“And that’s why Sacha is the guy that can bring both the direct midfield or the running midfield into the game. I just love the way he takes on the opposition. That’s one thing.
“He’s definitely not hanging back in the pocket. I think I saw on the weekend, he’s (scored) eight or 10 tries already for a fly-half. That’s quite a bit.
“And it’s good tries. It’s not easy tries. It’s really some fantastic tries.
“So, he’s that kind of guy.”
